Bangkok: Cambodia should have sovereignty over the disputed land around a 9th century Hindu Shiva temple bordering Thailand, the UN's highest court ruled on Monday. In a unanimous decision, the Hague-based International Court of Justice's said that a 1962 ruling by its judges gave Cambodia sovereignty over the 1,000-year-old Preah Vihear temple. It said Thailand was therefore "under an obligation to withdraw from that territory the Thai military or police forces or other guards or keepers that were stationed there."

This is the latest attempt to settle a long-simmering border dispute between Cambodia and Thailand which has claimed at least 28 lives in outbreaks of violence since 2011 over the ownership of the patch of border land next to the UNESCO heritage site built during the Khmer Empire atop a cliff in the Preah Vihear province of Cambodia. Last year, the ICJ ruled that both countries should withdraw forces from around the temple. Cambodia and Thailand finally pulled hundreds of soldiers from the disputed zone in July 2012, replacing them with police and security guards.

Tens of thousands of people were displaced in the 2011 fighting, leading Cambodia to ask the Netherlands-based ICJ for an interpretation of an original 1962 ruling. Thailand does not dispute Cambodia's ownership of the temple but both sides laid claim to an adjacent 4.6 sq km piece of land. The roots of the dispute lie in maps drawn up in 1907 during French colonial rule. In 1962, after a dispute between Thailand and Cambodia over ownership, the ICJ awarded the temple to Cambodia.